The goal of the project is to analyse the current situation of corporate reporting and to make recommendations for a stronger consideration of environmental risks, especially climate risks with regard to financial market decisions. A higher consideration of environmental and climate aspects in investment decisions can lead to fewer long-term misallocations resulting from informational deficits. Furthermore, cash flows can be channelled towards environmental and climate benign branches and technologies, so that the financial sector can also contribute to sustainable development.
In the course of the analysis, realised with the collaboration of Marina Schwenke, not only the mandatory reporting duties have been examined, but also those voluntary reporting standards, which contribute to the detection of environmental and climate risks. The goal was to provide a transparent informational basis for investment decisions to institutional investors as well as to loan creditors and small investors.
First, the implications of the economic environmental and climate risks for corporations and the financial sector have been analysed, comparing them to the present role of environmental and climate risks within corporate reporting. For this purpose, the first step was to look at the national and international mandatory requirements and to examine the current practice of enterprises afterwards. Finally, several more tangible suggestions about indicators, standards and measures for improving corporate environmental reporting have been derived and assessed in view of their effectiveness and feasibility. Here, particular attention was payed to the reporting to be consistent with regard to content and methodological requirements of the relevant financial market actors.